THE BATTLE OPENS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16948, 11 May 1929, Page 5

THE BATTLE OPENS

BRITISH ELECTIONS PARLIAMENT PROROGUED RUSH TO CONSTITUENCIES. (Bloc. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assm.) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received May 11, 10 a.m.) LONDON, May 10. Parliament concluded its actual labors to-day with the completion of the necessary financial measures. To-morrow it will be formally dissolved, and members will proceed to their constituencies to tight the election campaign. It is expected that the new Parliament will be summoned for June 25, when the Speaker will be elected and members sworn in. There will be another brief vacation before actual business begins; then it will depend upon the result of the General Election whether the present Government will remain in office for a further five years. With Parliament prorogued, the election campaign begins in earnest throughout the country. The House could no longer be held together, as the members for the past month have been stealing away to their constituencies, and an increasing number have been making speeches and keying up local organisations. Ministers have been more or less tied to the House and Whitehall, but the Opposition leaders and many of the smaller fry have long since vanished into the wilderness. Those who remained separated good-humoredly and banteringly, one saying to another, "Well, I suppose I shan't see you again," and others offering to insure their rivals against the loss of their deposits. A lobbyist recalls the saying of the late Sir Wilfred Lawson, the witty teetotaller : "It is far easier to go to tho country than to come back again.'' Conservative members of the House realise that they are faced with the stillest election battle of modern times, in which many a doughty champion must bite the dust.

Tho L'iberaili unemployment scheme still holds the field as the chief topic of discussion. If the Liberal Party is dead, it is a pretty lively corpse. There are now Liberal candidates for 498 seats. The total candidates number 1657.

Mr. Purbrick is contesting the Walton divison of Liverpool. There was a large attendance of members of the House of Commons at the closing session, particularly those not seeking re-election, headed by Mr. W C. Bridgeman, who was makingjhis last appearance on the front bench. Three minutes sufficed to conclude the business, Black Rod leading the procession to the Lords to hear tho King's Speech. LIBERALS NOT UNITED UNEMPLOYMENT SCHEME LUNDON, March 18. While Lloyd George|and his daughter, Megan, are pledging "he Liberal party, if returned to power, to carry out the programme outlined in a book entitled "We Can Conquer Unemployment," many Liberal candidates who are dubious about the whole scheme are searching their consciences to see if they can endorse this pledge to the electors of their constituences. Many of them have decided they must go warily in spite of the emphatic and definite declarations of their leader that the scheme can bo made effective, but as they are reluctant to imperil the unity of the party, there is not likely to be any open split at the present time.

Meanwhile, Lloyd George has declared that whether he has a majority or not, there will be a sufficient number of Liberals in Parliament after the next general election to force the government to put his unemployment programme into effect.

You have seen the last Tory government of stagnation and lassitude that this country is going to see either in your day or mine," he added. The Conservatives, with Premier Baldwin in the front rank, intend exposing Lloyd George's plan. "Labor is also denouncing it as futile, but are accusing its author of stealing it from them. CONTEST VEEY DULL IMPERIAL DEVELOPMENT LONDON, April 29. '/The general election is "duller than any in 50 years," says Mr. J. L. Garvin in the Observer. "The Conservative candidates, who are arousing the most enthusiasm, are those who advocate a national policy for unemployment to stand upon the basis of the Melchett-Turner report. "The Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, announced on April 25 that the Government designed to allocate a 'sum' for , Imperial development. I wish that he had named the approximate figure —a big one. A policy of Empire development in connection\with unemployment must be of the biggest, or nothing. In the absence of throeparty confusion the official Ministerial policy would not stand a. ghost of a chance." • _____ LABOR PROGRAMME ORGANISATION OP INDUSTRY STATE ECONOMIC COMMITTEE LONDON, May I. "I am not interested in startling programmes, but in a programme appealing to the people's conimonscnse," said Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, in launching the Labor Party's election campaign at a great rally at the Albert Hall.

"Unemployment bulks largest in the Labor Party's mind, and it will be the first matter to receive attention at the hands of the Labor Government," he went on. It will not be by means of relief works, however, although the unemployed will be maintained until they are absorbed. "Britain to-day is facing a complete revolution in transport owing to tho development of motors ami electricity, which the Labor Party believes must be assisted, or Britain will be unable to compete in the foreign markets.

"We propose to organise a 'brain' for the industrial state by the formation of a committee, over which the Prime Minister will preside, and which will include the President of the Board of Trade and the Minister for Labor.

"All questions relating to markets, currency, and industry will be referred to the committco, on which there will also be experts representing the em- ! ployers and workers. Roads will be built systematically, bridges will bo broken down and reconstructed, ritilwa'ys will be reconditioned, drainage., carried, on, reafforestation advanced,

houses built, migration dealt with, colonial economic expansion planned and carried out, all of which are embodied in Labor's policy to meet the needs of the modern industrial state.

"1 regard the International Labor OHiee us equal in importance with the League of Nations. We shall send delegates to its conferences to assist its work. We want peace in Europe, including diplomatic relations with Russia."

The Times, in commenting on' the speech, says:—"Mr. MacDonald, in the main, merely rang the changes upon the blessed word development, and betrays a singular bankruptcy of original and constructive thought, particularly in respect to his proposal for an economic committee to assist the Cabinet.

"Apparently he copied the Liberal idea of an economic general staff, but has forgotten the existing Committee of Civil Research. It is difficult to see how a generically-dilferent body can be created without cutting across the Cabinet's sovereign executive authority. It is ridiculous to suppose that Cabinet is capable of acting for itself, and incapable of obtaining the best advice on economic problems."